In 1962 Congress enacted various amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act of 1938 (the Act), 52 Stat. 1040, amended 76 Stat. 780, to
"strengthen and broaden existing laws in the drug field so as to bring about
better, safer medicine and to establish a more effective system of enforcement
of the drug laws." S.Rep.No.1744, 87th Cong., 2d Sess. 8, (1962) U.S.Code
Cong. & Adm.News, p. 2884. Among the amendments was a section by which
a drug is deemed adulterated if its packaging, processing, holding or
manufacturing fail to conform to "current good manufacturing practice
((CGMP)) to assure that such drug meets the requirements of this chapter as to
safety and has the identity and strength, and meets the quality and purity

characteristics, which it purports or is represented to possess". § 501(a)(2)(B),
21 U.S.C. § 351(a) (2)(B). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its
first regulations under this section in 1963, 28 F.R. 6385. In February, 1976,
FDA announced a proposal to revise and update the then current CGMP
regulations, 41 F.R. 6878. This proposal, which provided for the notice and
comment procedures contemplated by 5 U.S.C. § 553, announced:
2 Commissioner intends for CGMP regulations to become binding specific
The
requirements that must be complied with; failure to do so shall render a drug product
adulterated under section 501(a)(2)(B) of the (Act) .... Binding regulations will ...
serve to inform courts of FDA's expert judgments regarding current good
manufacturing practice for drugs in the United States; this will expedite and assist
enforcement proceedings to assure compliance with section 501(a)(2)(B) of the act.
3

The FDA received numerous comments both upon the substance of its
requirements and upon its proposal that the new CGMP regulations should have
the force of law.1 In an extensive preamble to the new regulations it set forth a
legal analysis supporting its view that it had power to issue binding regulations,
43 F.R. at 45021-25, and the reasons why it believed binding rather than
merely interpretive regulations would be in the public interest.2 The
regulations, now appearing at 21 C.F.R. Parts 210 and 211 (1980), were
published on September 29, 1978, to be effective March 28, 1979, 43 F.R.
45014. They cover a broad spectrum of affairs, including requirements for
personnel practices, record keeping, building design, and procedures for the
control of drug production, packaging and labeling.

4

In this action in the District Court for the Southern District of New York,
wherein jurisdiction was predicated on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331(a) and 1337, the
National Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and the National
Pharmaceutical Alliance, both trade associations, sought a declaration that
FDA's attempt to give binding effect to the new CGMP Regulations was
beyond its authority. The FDA moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to
state a claim upon which relief can be granted, F.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Chief
Judge MacMahon granted the motion in a brief opinion, D.C. 487 F.Supp. 412
(1980), this appeal followed, and we now affirm. 3

5

Two different subsections of § 701 confer rulemaking authority upon the FDA.
Section 701(a) provides:

6

The authority to promulgate regulations for the efficient enforcement of this
chapter, except as otherwise provided in this section, is vested in the Secretary
(of Health and Human Services).

7

The effect of § 4 of the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (APA), now 5
U.S.C. § 553, is to require that rulemaking under § 701(a), with certain
exceptions, including "interpretative rules", follow an informal notice and
comment procedure, which was done here. Section 701(e) provides that "(a)ny
action for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of any regulation" under various
sections of the Act of which § 501(a)(2)(B) is not one, shall follow a complex
procedure which has been read to include a trial-type hearing; § 701(f) provides
that review of any order resulting from such rulemaking lies in a court of
appeals. See National Nutritional Foods Ass'n v. FDA, 504 F.2d 761, 771-74 (2
Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 946, 95 S.Ct. 1326, 43 L.Ed.2d 424 (1975).
Admittedly § 701(e) procedures were not followed here and the FDA's
authority to give binding effect to the CGMP regulations at issue must rest on §
701(a).

8

Reading the language of that subsection, which comes from the Act of 1938,
with the eyes of 1980, one would have little difficulty in concluding that the
words suffice to empower the Commissioner of the FDA, to whom the
Secretary has delegated his powers, 21 C.F.R. § 5.1(a)(1) (1980), to issue
regulations, substantive as well as procedural, having the force of law.4 The
comprehensive opinion of Judge J. Skelly Wright in National Petroleum
Refiners Ass'n v. FTC, 482 F.2d 672 (D.C.Cir.1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S.
951, 94 S.Ct. 1475, 39 L.Ed.2d 567 (1974), catalogued the many instances in
which general statutory provisions not differing essentially from § 701(a) have
been held to endow agencies with power to issue binding rules and regulations.
In the interest of historical accuracy, it should be noted that at one time it was
widely understood that generalized grants of rulemaking authority conferred
power only to make rules of a procedural or an interpretative nature, and not
binding substantive regulations, for which a specific delegation was thought
necessary. See, e. g., Alvord, Treasury Regulations and the Wilshire Oil Case,
40 Colum.L.Rev. 252, 259-61 (1940); Lee, Legislative and Interpretive
Regulations, 29 Geo.L.J. 1, 21 (1940); Final Report of the Attorney General's
Committee on Administrative Procedure, supra, at 98 & nn.18, 19. The
Supreme Court's decision in National Broadcasting Co. v. United States, 319
U.S. 190, 63 S.Ct. 997, 87 L.Ed. 1344 (1943), which in retrospect seems to
have inaugurated the modern approach, was not universally so recognized at
the time, since the Court there relied in part on more specific grants of
rulemaking power and the regulations at issue in that case, although substantive
in effect, were clothed in the garb of procedural rules.

9

In 1953, however, the Court decided American Trucking Ass'ns v. United
States, 344 U.S. 298, 73 S.Ct. 307, 97 L.Ed. 337, in which the issue was
whether the Interstate Commerce Commission, under the Motor Carrier Act of

1935, had the authority to promulgate rules restricting leasing and interchange
practices in the trucking industry. In an outstanding opinion by Justice Reed,
the Court expressly rejected the arguments that the Commission had exceeded
its authority because the statute lacked an express delegation of power to
regulate the practices in question, and because the general rulemaking power
the statute did confer was intended only for rules governing agency procedure:
10 a matter of principle, we might agree with appellants' contentions if we thought it
As
a reasonable canon of interpretation that the draftsmen of acts delegating agency
powers, as a practical and realistic matter, can or do include specific consideration of
every evil to be corrected. But no great acquaintance with practical affairs is required
to know that such prescience, either in fact or in the minds of Congress, does not
exist....
11

We hold then that the promulgation of these rules for authorized carriers falls
within the Commission's power, despite the absence of specific reference to
leasing practices in the Act.... The grant of general rule-making power
necessary for enforcement compels this result.

12

Id. at 309-10, 312, 73 S.Ct. at 314, 315. As documented by Judge Wright in
National Petroleum Refiners, this generous construction of agency rulemaking
authority has become firmly entrenched.5

13

Beyond this there is formidable authority to the effect that § 701(a) itself is a
grant of power to issue binding regulations. The first is the statement in Abbott
Laboratories, supra, 387 U.S. at 151-52, 87 S.Ct. at 1516-1517, adverting to
certain drug labeling regulations issued pursuant to § 701(a):

14
These
regulations are not meant to advise the Attorney General, but purport to be
directly authorized by the statute. Thus, if within the Commissioner's authority, they
have the status of law and violations of them carry heavy criminal and civil
sanctions.
15

The Court also spoke of the regulations as "self-operative" rules "that must be
followed by an entire industry". Id. at 147, 87 S.Ct. at 1514. It can be argued
that the Court could not really have meant to decide whether the regulations
there at issue had the "status of law" since the Government had urged
throughout the case that they were merely interpretive, the court of appeals had
so held, 352 F.2d at 289-90, and the petitioner had not seriously challenged
this, and also because in Toilet Goods Ass'n v. Gardner, 360 F.2d 677, 686,
heard and decided in the Supreme Court, 387 U.S. 158, 167, 87 S.Ct. 1520,
1526, 18 L.Ed.2d 697, 704, together with Abbott Laboratories, we had said that

we saw "little profit in debating the point, much discussed by the parties,
whether the Regulations are 'interpretative' or 'legislative' ", since "the
interpretative character of a regulation does not necessarily make it unripe for
review".6 However, the Court's remarks are at least impressive dicta operating
in the Government's favor here. See Ciba-Geigy Corp. v. Richardson, 446 F.2d
466, 467-68 (2 Cir. 1971) (per curiam).
16

Next came the quartet of cases decided by the Supreme Court in 1973:
Weinberger v. Hynson, Westcott & Dunning, Inc., 412 U.S. 609, 93 S.Ct. 2469,
37 L.Ed.2d 707; CIBA Corp. v. Weinberger, 412 U.S. 640, 93 S.Ct. 2495, 37
L.Ed.2d 230; Weinberger v. Bentex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 412 U.S. 645, 93
S.Ct. 2488, 37 L.Ed.2d 235; and USV Pharmaceutical Corp. v. Weinberger,
412 U.S. 655, 93 S.Ct. 2498, 37 L.Ed.2d 244. Although Professor Kenneth
Culp Davis cites these, along with the passage just quoted from Abbott
Laboratories, for the proposition that "(r)ules issued under § 701(a) are
legislative rules and not merely interpretive", 1 Administrative Law Treatise §
6:8 at 478 (2d ed. 1978), plaintiffs emphasize his remark that "the four cases
are weak authority because the regulation rested only in part on § 701(a) and
because the Court did not address itself to the question whether § 701(a) was
sufficient support for the rules." Examination of the briefs confirms that
discussion of § 701(a) and the legislative-interpretive distinction was meagre,
the only instance being in the briefs in the Bentex case. Still we find it difficult
not to see in the passage of Mr. Justice Douglas' opinion quoted in the margin7
an endorsement of the Government's position that § 701(a) authorized the FDA
to issue substantive regulations having the force of law.8

17

In any event this court, in National Nutritional Foods Ass'n v. Weinberger, 512
F.2d 688, cert. denied, 423 U.S. 827, 96 S.Ct. 44, 46 L.Ed.2d 44 (1975),
characterized the 1973 quartet of Supreme Court decisions as having dispelled
"(w)hatever doubts might have been entertained regarding the FDA's power
under § 701(a) to promulgate binding regulations". Id. at 696. The court said: "
(o)ur attention has not been directed to anything in the legislative history of §§
701(a) and (e) that militates against these conclusions",9 and correctly stated
that "over the last decade rule-making has been increasingly substituted for
adjudication as a regulatory technique, with the support and encouragement of
the courts, at least where the regulation involves specialized scientific
knowledge", id. at 698, citing, among other cases, Judge Wright's opinion in
National Petroleum Refiners Ass'n v. FTC, supra, 482 F.2d 672. The decision
in National Nutritional Foods, supra, thus reinforced our earlier reliance on
Abbott Laboratories as supporting the Commissioner's power to issue § 701(a)
regulations that are binding. See Ciba-Geigy Corp. v. Richardson, supra, 446
F.2d at 467-68. In United States v. Nova Scotia Food Products Corp., 568 F.2d

Appellants' claim is that, whether or not the FDA may generally issue binding
substantive regulations under § 701(a), although they obviously think it may
not, it cannot do so with respect to the CGMP Regulations. In support of this
position they rely on the legislative history of the portion of the 1962
amendments that added § 501(a)(2)(B). This is set out in P 35 of the Preamble
to the CGMP Regulations here at issue, 43 F.R. at 45021-23, and we shall now
summarize it.

19

On July 19, 1962, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out S. 1552, the
Senate version of what ultimately became the Drug Amendments of 1962.
Section 5 of the bill, after making the substantive amendment adding the
current good manufacturing practices requirement, added:

20 Secretary is authorized to issue interpretative regulations, upon notice and in
The
accordance with the procedures set forth in section 4 of the Administrative
Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 1003), which shall in any proceeding involving this
paragraph, be prima facie evidence of what constitutes current good manufacturing
practice.
21

On August 21, 1962, the Senate Committee reported out a revised version of
the bill. The reworded § 501(a)(2)(B) omitted any reference to regulations. The
Committee explained this as follows, S.Rep.No.1744, Part 2, 87th Cong., 2d
Sess., pages 3 and 4:

23

The President, in the recommendations submitted for the consideration of the
committee with his letter of August 3, 1962, proposed a revised version which
included the following principal amendments to the reported bill:

24

(1) It proposed to replace the provisions on regulations with prima facie
evidentiary effect with a provision that the adequacy of the quality controls be
determined "in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Secretary on
the basis of good manufacturing practice" after formal rulemaking procedures,
i. e., after affording an opportunity for hearing, and for judicial review on the
basis of the hearing record, with respect to such regulations.

25

The explanation accompanying the recommendations of the President
expressed concern lest the language as to interpretative regulations with prima
facie evidentiary effect invite endless de novo litigation on the question of what
constitutes good manufacturing practice each time there is enforcement action
under the new quality control provisions. The committee acceded to the
President's request for elimination of the "prima facie" regulatory authority in
the bill. It felt, however, on balance, that there was no need for inserting
provisions for regulations through formal rulemaking on the subject of what is
good manufacturing practice. Section 701(a) (21 U.S.C. 371(a)) now vests in
the Secretary "authority to promulgate regulations for the efficient enforcement
of this Act." This permits the Department to issue such regulations as it desires
and their scope and effect will be the same as that of other regulations issued
under such general authority. Numerous regulations have been issued under
section 701(a) and have been the subject of consideration and application in the
courts in actions arising under the various provisions of the act not now subject
to formal rulemaking procedures.

26

During the floor debate on August 23, Senator Eastland, Chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, said on the subject of rulemaking:

27 Secretary could use his general rulemaking authority under section 701(a) of the
The
act to announce what he, in the administration of the act, considers to be good
manufacturing practice insofar as methods and administration are concerned. As in
the case of other regulations, the court in the final analysis will pass upon the scope
and effect of such regulations.
28

108 Cong.Rec. 17365.

29

A month later the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee reported
out H.R. 11581, its version of the Drug Amendments. After defining as

adulterated drugs not prepared in conformity with current good manufacturing
practice, the House bill would have inserted the words "(as determined in
accordance with regulations promulgated by the Secretary)"; it also would have
amended § 701(e) to include CGMP Regulations among the categories
requiring "formal" rulemaking procedures. The accompanying report accurately
paraphrased the bill and expressly stated:
30

The promulgation of these regulations would be subject to opportunity for
hearing and judicial review. Thus, legal action could be brought against firms
failing to abide by these standards and against the products they ship.

31

H.Rep.No.2464, 87th Cong., 2d Sess. 2 (1962).

32

The House debated the bill on September 27, 1962. Representative Schenck
offered an amendment to delete the parenthetical clause in § 501(a)(2) and the
amendment to § 701(e). His explanation, so far as here pertinent, was as
follows:

33

My amendment to section 101 of the bill, which was approved by the
committee, provides simply that the drug will be deemed to be adulterated and
subject to seizure if the methods, facilities, or controls used in the manufacture
of the drug do not conform with current good manufacturing practice, as
determined in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Secretary.

34

The committee adopted an amendment which would make the formal
rulemaking procedures of section 701(e) of the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act applicable to regulations referred to which may be made pursuant
to the above amendment.

35

I am opposed to the amendment in section 101(b) of the bill which would
require the Secretary to hold a formal hearing under section 701(e) of the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in order to issue regulations as to what
constitutes current good manufacturing practice. I favor the approach adopted
by the Senate under which this determination is made pursuant to section
701(a) of the act. This procedure permits the Secretary to issue such regulations
as he desires and their scope and effect will be the same as that of other
regulations issued under such general authority. This procedure is more
flexible. Numerous regulations have been issued under this section and they
have been the subject of consideration and application in the courts in actions
arising under the various provisions of the act not now subject to formal
rulemaking procedures.

36

108 Cong.Rec. 21056-57. Chairman Harris of the House Interstate and Foreign
Commerce Committee observed that the Schenck amendment was "taken, in
part, from the Senate bill"; and that Representative Schenck had advised him
"of the need not to tie this provision in with section 701(e)." 108 Cong.Rec.
21077. The House thereupon adopted the section which, as revised by the
Schenck amendment, was the same as the Senate bill and made no mention of
regulations.

37

Little need be said with respect to one argument made on the basis of the
legislative history. This is that President Kennedy proposed to the Senate a
trade whereby the CGMP regulations would have binding rather than prima
facie effect but only if they were adopted through the "formal" § 701(e)
procedures, and that the Senate cannot be thought to have given him more than
he sought to wit, binding effect but without § 701(e) procedures. We perceive
no basis for the latter conclusion. The Senate was free to accept the President's
criticism of the prima facie language without conditioning the striking of this
on adherence to the complicated § 701(e) procedure. The Senate Report shows
that this was what it did. The record in the House is even clearer. There the
Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee had adopted the President's
proposal but, on hearing Representative Schenck's objection and Chairman
Harris' endorsement of it, struck the requirement for § 701(e) procedures.

38

Indeed, so far as concerns the precise issue here before us, plaintiffs' resort to
the legislative history of the 1962 Amendments works against rather than for
them. It is clear the 1962 Congress intended to do something in response to
President Kennedy's request and also that the something was not compulsory
resort to the procedure required by § 701(e). Yet there is no substantial
difference between the "prima facie " evidence standard in the original Senate
bill and the "interpretive" limitation urged by plaintiffs.

39

Plaintiffs' other argument is more impressive, although not sufficiently so. This
is that when the 1962 Congress decided to rely on the Secretary's rulemaking
authority under § 701(a), it was to that authority as then understood; that the
pre-1962 case law established that any substantive regulations issued under §
701(a) could be interpretive only; that the legislative history of the 1938 Act
strongly corroborates this; and that the Supreme Court's statements in Abbott
Laboratories in 1967 and the Hynson quartet in 1973 and our own still later
decisions are thus not dispositive of the problem in hand. Added support for
this argument is sought in the final sentences of the excerpt from the report of
the Senate Committee, and in the remarks of Senator Eastland and
Representative Schenck, all set out above.

40

We do not find the pre-1962 decisions with respect to the extent of the
Secretary's power under § 701(a) to be so conclusive as plaintiffs assert.
Weighing in the Government's favor is United States v. Sullivan, 332 U.S. 689,
691 n.2, 68 S.Ct. 331, 333 n.2, 92 L.Ed. 297 (1948), in which the Supreme
Court remarked that an inscription on a label appeared to constitute adequate
directions for use in compliance with § 502(f)(1) of the Act since the wording
of the label was "required by regulation issued by the Administrator pursuant to
authority of the Act, 21 C.F.R. Cum.Supp. § 2.106(b)(3)" (1944), a regulation
promulgated under § 701(a). See 6 F.R. 1920 (1941). Two courts of appeals
applied the standard of review appropriate for binding rules in upholding §
701(a) regulations establishing exemptions from the Act's requirements. Arner
Co. v. United States, 142 F.2d 730, 734-37 (1 Cir.), cert. denied, 323 U.S. 730,
65 S.Ct. 66, 89 L.Ed. 586 (1944); United States v. El-O-Pathic Pharmacy, 192
F.2d 62 (9 Cir. 1951). Less clear in their import and not bolstering either
position are Colgrove v. United States, 176 F.2d 614 (9 Cir. 1949), which
concerned labeling regulations under 21 U.S.C. § 352(f); the court spoke of
these both as "interpretative", 176 F.2d at 615 n.3, and as "authoritative", id. at
616; and United States v. Two Articles of Device, No. 2343 Civ.
(E.D.Okla.1949), published in Kleinfeld & Dunn, Federal Food, Drug and
Cosmetic Act: Judicial and Administrative Record 1938-1949, at 529 (1949).
The court in Drown v. United States, 198 F.2d 999 (9 Cir. 1952), cert. denied,
344 U.S. 920, 73 S.Ct. 385, 97 L.Ed. 709 (1953), found an "interpretive"
labeling regulation to be a reasonable construction of the statute, a decision
arguably weighing in favor of the plaintiffs. In addition, the plaintiffs rely on
United States v. Various Articles of Drugs, 83 F.Supp. 882, 884-85
(D.D.C.1949), and United States v. 38 Dozen Bottles, 114 F.Supp. 461, 463 n.1
(D.Minn.1953), district court cases which did indeed speak of § 701(a)
regulations as interpretive. In none of the cases we have cited, however, was
the issue sharply posed.

41

An indication of the intent of the 1962 Congress with respect to the scope of the
regulatory power conferred by § 701(a) far more persuasive than this
inconclusive smattering of cases under § 701(a) itself is furnished by wellknown pre-1962 Supreme Court decisions which had held that rulemaking
provisions similar to § 701(a) empowered the agency to issue binding rules. We
cite as examples National Broadcasting Co. v. United States, supra, 319 U.S.
190, 63 S.Ct. 997, 87 L.Ed. 1344 (FCC's network broadcasting rules); United
States v. Storer Broadcasting Co., 351 U.S. 192, 76 S.Ct. 763, 100 L.Ed. 1081
(1956) (FCC's limitation on number of broadcasting stations owned); and
American Trucking Ass'ns v. United States, supra, 344 U.S. 298, 73 S.Ct. 307,
97 L.Ed. 337 (ICC's rules governing use by authorized motor carriers of
equipment obtained by lease or interchange). See also SEC v. Chenery Corp.,

332 U.S. 194, 202, 67 S.Ct. 1575, 1580, 91 L.Ed. 1995 (1947).10
42

On the other hand plaintiffs seem on solid ground when they contend that if the
1962 Congress had made the detailed examination of the legislative history and
contemporary understanding of the 1938 Act, which plaintiffs' counsel have
now made at long last, see note 9 supra, it might well have concluded that §
701(a) in fact very likely was not intended to confer power to issue binding
substantive rules. We shall give only an abbreviated version of what is spelled
out in plaintiffs' brief. The story begins in 1933 with the introduction of a bill,
S.1944, 73d Cong. 1st Sess., the so-called Tugwell bill, containing a section
which was read to give the Secretary of Agriculture power to prescribe binding
regulations, see Dunn, Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act: A Statement of
Its Legislative Record 49 (1938) (§ 23(a)), a power the Food and Drugs Act of
1906, 34 Stat. 768, had not conferred.11 At the next session Senator Copeland
of the Senate Commerce Committee substituted a different bill, S. 2800, 73d
Cong., 2d Sess., proposing the establishment of committees on public health
and food standards with the power to veto any regulations proposed by the
Secretary of Agriculture. Senator Copeland explained that "the first bill placed
in the hands of the Secretary of Agriculture what personally I regard as too
great arbitrary power". 78 Cong.Rec. 2728 (1934), reprinted in Dunn, supra, at
68. In the next Congress, the Senate passed a similar bill, denominated S. 5,
74th Cong., 1st Sess. The accompanying report submitted by Senator Copeland
listed seven areas in which regulations were contemplated, later catalogued in §
701(e), and said:

43

While other regulations are authorized for the purpose of making exemptions or
for purely administrative operations, the only regulations imposing positive
requirements are those listed above.

44

S.Rep.No.646, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. 10 (1935), reprinted in Dunn, supra, at
486. In the House, the attempt to control the Secretary's discretion by the
committee structure was abandoned, and the dichotomy later to become §§
701(a) and (e) was proposed instead. S. 5, 74th Cong., 2d Sess., reported as
amended by the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce 69-70
(May 22, 1936), reprinted in Dunn, supra, at 542. The bill to be finally enacted,
with §§ 701(a) and (e) in place, was reported out by the House Committee on
Interstate and Foreign Commerce in April, 1938. The end of the story is in
House Report No. 2139, 75th Cong., 3d Sess. 9-10 (1938), reprinted in Dunn,
supra, at 823-24:

45

Section 701 relates generally to regulations. In the case of regulations, the
violation of which constitutes an offense, it is required that appropriate notice

of a public hearing be given and that adequate time shall be given after the
promulgation of a regulation before it becomes effective.
46

Section 701(e), (f), and (g) of the committee amendment set forth the procedure
governing the formulation and judicial review of certain regulations to be
issued by the Secretary....

47

Such regulations are not merely interpretive. They have the force and effect of
law and must be observed. Their violation may result in the imposition of
criminal penalties, or in the confiscation of the goods involved if shipped in
interstate commerce, or in their exclusion from the country if imported.

48

Plaintiffs supplement this history with references to instances, not necessary
here to recount, wherein the FDA at various times had represented that §
701(a) did not empower it to issue binding substantive regulations, and with
citations to secondary sources supporting that view.12

49

A principal difficulty with plaintiffs' argument is that there is no evidence that
these arcana concerning the legislative history of the 1938 Act were known to
the 1962 Congress. Much water had flowed under the bridge since 1938. The
principal consideration in 1938 against permitting the FDA to issue binding
substantive rules except by following the complex procedures of § 701(e),
namely the absence of any statutorily prescribed procedures under § 701(a),
was radically changed when Congress enacted the APA in 1946. Pursuant to §
4 of that Act, now 5 U.S.C. § 553, the FDA, as previously indicated, cannot
issue a binding substantive rule under § 701(a) without complying with notice
and comment procedures that give affected parties an adequate opportunity to
be heard. While the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act has not been
completely reenacted since 1946, it has been repeatedly amended to give the
Secretary new powers. Many of these provisions have expressly authorized him
to make implementing regulations, e. g., Color Additive Amendments of 1960,
Pub.L.No.86-618, Title I, § 103(b), 74 Stat. 397 (codified in part at 21 U.S.C.
§§ 376(b), (c)); Animal Drug Amendments of 1968, Pub.L.No.90-399, §
101(b), 82 Stat. 342 (codified in part at 21 U.S.C. § 360b(n)); Medical Device
Amendments of 1976, Pub.L.No.94-295, § 2, 90 Stat. 539 (codified in part at
21 U.S.C. §§ 360c(e), 360e(b)); Infant Formula Act of 1980, Pub.L.No.96-359,
§ 2, 94 Stat. 1190 (to be codified in part at 21 U.S.C. §§ 412(a)(2), (d)(2), (e)
(2), (f) (2)); when Congress has wished this to be done only by following §
701(e) procedures, it has said so, e. g., Color Additive Amendments of 1960,
supra, 21 U.S.C. § 376(d); Drug Amendments of 1962, Pub.L.No.87-781, Title
I, § 131(a), 76 Stat. 780 (codified in part at 21 U.S.C. § 352(n)). When it has
provided for regulations but has not required this or, as in the case of the current

good manufacturing practice provisions, it has said nothing about regulations, it
is more reasonable to believe that Congress meant the FDA to have the same
power to issue binding substantive regulations as the Supreme Court had
recognized for other agencies beginning with the National Broadcasting
decision in 1943.
50

Plaintiffs' argument also goes astray in asking that we disregard subsequent
decisions on the effect of § 701(a) regulations for the purpose of determining
the intent of the 1962 Congress. It is true, of course, that decisions dating from
1967 to the present concerning the meaning of the 1938 Act afford no key to
what Congress was thinking in 1962.13 But since there is no evidence that the
1962 Congress was familiar with the legislative history of the 1938 Act,
plaintiffs' argument is really nothing more than an invitation to reconsider the
question of the power originally conferred by § 701(a) in 1938. We decline to
do so. Even if it were necessary for adjudication of this case to decide what
Congress meant in 1938, the evidence mustered by plaintiffs, although
persuasive, is not so conclusive as to show beyond doubt that the prior cases
misconstrued § 701(a). See Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City
of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 700-01, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2040-41, 56 L.Ed.2d 611
(1978). Indeed, what the plaintiffs have demonstrated convincingly is that
while the 1938 Congress clearly intended § 701(e) regulations to have binding
authority, it never decided just what effect § 701(a) regulations would have. A
broad construction of a statute, consistent with the words enacted, and
maintained for thirteen years by the Supreme Court and this court, need not be
rejected simply because of a discovery that sponsors seemingly favored a
narrower one more than forty years ago. This is particularly so when the basis
for the attitude of the sponsors has disappeared as a result of later enactments,
here 5 U.S.C. § 553, and the narrower construction would place the statute
apart from other regulatory acts using similar language with respect to
rulemaking. Moreover, the FDA, since the decision in Abbott Laboratories, has
issued a substantial number of binding substantive regulations under § 701(a).
National Nutritional Foods Ass'n v. Weinberger, 376 F.Supp. 142, 147 n.7
(S.D.N.Y.1974), aff'd 512 F.2d 688 (2 Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 827,
96 S.Ct. 44, 46 L.Ed.2d 44 (1975). A decision at this late date denying such
power to it would thus create turmoil throughout numerous areas subject to
regulation by the FDA.

51

It remains to be considered whether, as plaintiffs strongly urge, a different
result is required by Chrysler Corp. v. Brown, supra, 441 U.S. 281, 99 S.Ct.
1705, 60 L.Ed.2d 208. We shall not endeavor to state the case in detail; the part
of interest for us is that portion of the opinion, 441 U.S. at 301-08, 99 S.Ct. at
1717-21, holding that disclosure regulations, 41 C.F.R. §§ 60.40-1 to 60.40-4

(1978) issued pursuant to the general grant of rulemaking power to the
Secretary of Labor provided in § 201 of Executive Order 11246, did not have
the force and effect of law, and thus did not lift the prohibition on certain kinds
of disclosures of agency information contained in the Trade Secrets Act, 18
U.S.C. § 1905. Critical to the decision was the fact that the direct authority for
the regulation was an executive order and not a statute. "The legislative power
of the United States is vested in Congress, and the exercise of quasi-legislative
authority by governmental departments and agencies must be rooted in a grant
of such power by the Congress and subject to limitations which that body
imposes." 441 U.S. at 302, 99 S.Ct. at 1718. Regulations adopted pursuant to
Executive Order 11246 could have the "force and effect of law" only by virtue
of "a nexus between the regulations and some delegation of the requisite
legislative authority by Congress." 414 U.S. at 304, 99 S.Ct. at 1719. The
origins of the Congressional authority for the entirety of Executive Order
11246, setting up a program to end employment discrimination by the
Government and its contractors, were "somewhat obscure"; a number of
statutes as well as some more general notions of executive power had been
relied upon. Id. at 304-05, 99 S.Ct. at 1719. The "pertinent inquiry" thus
became "whether under any of the arguable statutory grants of authority the ...
disclosure regulations ... are reasonably within the contemplation of that grant
of authority." 441 U.S. at 306, 99 S.Ct. at 1720. The Court had little difficulty
in answering this question in the negative. Although this alone would seem
dispositive, the Court then addressed itself to the Government's argument that
the disclosure regulations were consistent with the goal of combatting
employment discrimination and therefore were within the terms of § 201 of the
Executive Order, which authorizes rules and regulations "necessary and
appropriate" to achieve its purposes. The Court said that "(w)ere a grant of
legislative authority as a basis for Executive Order 11246 more clearly
identifiable, we might agree with the respondents that this 'compatibility' gives
the disclosure regulations the necessary legislative force." However, "the thread
between these regulations and any grant of authority by the Congress is so
strained that it would do violence to established principles of separation of
powers to denominate these particular regulations 'legislative' and to credit them
with the 'binding effect of law.' " 441 U.S. at 307-08, 99 S.Ct. at 1720-21.
52

The Court moved swiftly from this holding to put to rest any argument that the
Chrysler decision cast doubt on the ability of agencies to make binding
substantive regulations where Congress had authorized this in general terms.
Immediately after the passage just paraphrased it stated:

53

This is not to say that any grant of legislative authority to a federal agency must
be specific before regulations promulgated pursuant to them can be binding on

courts in a manner akin to statutes. What is important is that the reviewing
court reasonably be able to conclude that the grant of authority contemplates
the regulations issued.
54

441 U.S. at 308, 99 S.Ct. at 1721. The Court thought the "best illustration" of
this process to be Justice Frankfurter's opinion in National Broadcasting Co. v.
United States, supra, 319 U.S. 190, cited above as one of the pre-1962
decisions holding that a general grant of rulemaking authority similar to §
701(a) empowered an agency to issue regulations which "had the force of law
and were binding on the courts unless they were arbitrary or not promulgated
pursuant to prescribed procedures." 441 U.S. at 308, 99 S.Ct. at 1721. 14

55

In these passages of the Chrysler opinion we find no indication that the Court
meant to overrule the principle that a Congressional delegation of power to
make regulations for the efficient enforcement of a statute confers power to
make substantive regulations that are binding. That principle was essentially
adopted in the National Broadcasting case, was established beyond doubt in
American Trucking Ass'ns v. United States, and was recently reaffirmed in
Mourning v. Family Publications Service, Inc., 411 U.S. 356, 369, 93 S.Ct.
1652, 1660, 36 L.Ed.2d 318 (1973), where the Court declared it "well
established" that the validity of a regulation promulgated under a general grant
of rulemaking authority will be sustained so long as it is " 'reasonably related to
the purposes of the enabling legislation' ", quoting Thorpe v. Housing Authority
of the City of Durham, supra, 393 U.S. at 280-81, 89 S.Ct. at 525. Here the
legislative history of the Drug Amendments of 1962 demonstrates, if this were
needed, that Congress intended its broad language to be fleshed out by
regulations issued by the FDA under § 701(a). Not only the terms of the
Chrysler opinion but also the lack of dissent show that it was not intended to
reverse an unbroken series of holdings stretching over more than a quarter of a
century.15

56

The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

*

Judge Newman having recused himself in this case, it is being disposed of by
the two other judges on the panel, who are in agreement. See Second Circuit
Rule § 0.14(b)

1

A concise formulation of the distinction between "binding" and "interpretive"
rules is supplied by the Final Report of the Attorney General's Committee on
Administrative Procedure 100 (1941):

Administrative rule-making ... includes the formulation of both legally binding
regulations and interpretative regulations. The former receive statutory force
upon going into effect. The latter do not receive statutory force and their
validity is subject to challenge in any court proceeding in which their
application may be in question. The statutes themselves and not the regulations
remain in theory the sole criterion of what the law authorizes or compels and
what it forbids.
2

The most significant justification for having the regulations binding is to
minimize the burden on the government and on the courts in a case where a
violation does occur. When the regulations are merely interpretive, the agency
must provide expert testimony in each trial to demonstrate what the current
good manufacturing practice in the industry is, notwithstanding the regulation.
The cost of locating and preparing such expert witnesses and bringing them to
the trial, as well as the judicial time taken in hearing these witnesses, would be
eliminated by having binding regulations

43

F.R. 45025 (1978)

3

We are told that plaintiffs have brought another action in the district court
challenging numerous provisions of the CGMP Regulations on the merits. At
argument we expressed some doubt whether even under the liberal views with
respect to pre-enforcement review announced in Abbott Laboratories v.
Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967), rev'g Abbott
Laboratories v. Celebrezze, 352 F.2d 286 (3 Cir. 1965), and Gardner v. Toilet
Goods Ass'n, 387 U.S. 167, 87 S.Ct. 1526, 18 L.Ed.2d 704 (1967), aff'g Toilet
Goods Ass'n v. Gardner, 360 F.2d 677 (2 Cir. 1966), where plaintiffs
challenged the substance of the regulations, the district court could properly
entertain an action which did not challenge any substantive provision but
merely questioned the promulgator's declaration of their legal effect. Both sides
have asked us to sustain the district court's entertaining the action, citing Central
Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. EPA, 587 F.2d 549, 558 (2 Cir. 1978), which
held that a controversy whether the EPA or the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation had jurisdiction over certain applications to
discharge pollutants into the Hudson River was ripe for judicial review.
Plaintiffs say that it is important for them to know in the conduct of their
business whether the CGMP regulations are authoritative or merely
interpretive. Non-compliance with the regulations entails heavy legal and
practical penalties for introducing "adulterated" materials into commerce, see
Gardner v. Toilet Goods Ass'n, supra, 387 U.S. at 172, 87 S.Ct. at 1529. A
manufacturer might be willing to take these risks if he could prevail by showing
that he was conforming with what current good manufacturing practice in the
industry in fact was, but not if his only avenue of escape was by showing that

the regulation was unlawful within 5 U.S.C. § 706(2). We conclude that
although the case presses the notion of ripeness further than any predecessor
known to us, the district court had power to entertain the complaint
4

This statement will be subjected to more extended consideration in connection
with plaintiffs' argument that the 1979 decision in Chrysler Corp. v. Brown,
441 U.S. 281, 99 S.Ct. 1705, 60 L.Ed.2d 208, established a new and restrictive
approach to Congressional grants of rulemaking power an argument which we
discuss and reject at the end of this opinion

We think that it is implicit in the regulatory scheme, not spelled out in haec
verba, that FDA has jurisdiction to decide with administrative finality, subject
to the types of judicial review provided, the "new drug" status of individual
drugs or classes of drugs. The deluge of litigation that would follow if "me-too"
drugs and OTC drugs had to receive de novo hearings in the courts would inure
to the interests of manufacturers and merchants in drugs, but not to the interests
of the public that Congress was anxious to protect
Weinberger v. Bentex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., supra, 412 U.S. at 653, 93 S.Ct. at
2494.

8

We prefer not to rely, as other opinions have done, on the Hynson decision
itself, since the Court's consideration in that case of the FDA's summary
judgment procedures for "new drug" applications did not clearly treat the
regulations as either legislative or interpretive in nature, 412 U.S. at 617-22, 93
S.Ct. at 2476-2479, and in any event, the regulations were procedural rather
than substantive. Moreover, in its discussion of the Commission's authority to
determine "new drug" status and the advantages of proceeding on a
comprehensive rather than an individual, case-by-case basis, the Court chose to
rely on the agency's power to issue a declaratory order under 5 U.S.C. § 554(e),
412 U.S. at 624-26, 93 S.Ct. at 2480-2481 and not on § 701(a), which the
Government in its brief had advanced as an alternative ground. Doubtless this is
what Professor Davis had in mind in the passage quoted in the text

9

Appellants' brief in that case, prepared by the same firm representing plaintiffs

here, made only the most meagre reference to the legislative history of the 1938
Act now so strongly pressed, see infra
10

Although the regulations in National Broadcasting and Storer Broadcasting
were cast in procedural terms, it was plain that they had vital substantive effect

11

Section 3 of the 1906 Act authorized the Secretaries of Agriculture, the
Treasury, and Commerce and Labor (later Commerce) to issue rules and
regulations for carrying out the Act's provisions. Plaintiffs contend that United
States v. Antikomnia Chemical Co., 231 U.S. 654, 34 S.Ct. 222, 58 L.Ed. 419
(1914), decided that a regulation issued under § 3 was merely interpretive. The
Government, supported by commentators, considers the case to have held that §
3 authorized the three Secretaries to issue binding, substantive regulations. See
Hayes & Ruff, The Administration of the Federal Food and Drug Act, 1 Law &
Contemp.Probs. 16 (1933); 2 Toulmin, The Law of Foods, Drugs & Cosmetics
§ 34.2 at 780 (2d ed. 1963). A safer stance is that the rather murky opinion
written by Mr. Justice McKenna did not clearly take either position. Lower
courts were divided on this question. Compare United States v. 779 Cases of
Molasses, 174 F. 325 (8 Cir. 1909); and United States v. 37 One-Pound
Packages of Colors (E.D.Pa.1925), published in White & Gates, Decisions of
Courts in Cases under the Federal Food and Drugs Act 1165, 1166 (1934); with
United States v. Piso Co. (W.D.Pa.1911), published in White & Gates, supra, at
319, 321; and United States v. Trinidad Creamery Co. (D.Colo.1925),
published in White & Gates, supra, at 1152, 1154
Whatever the true status of these § 3 regulations, the Secretary of Agriculture,
not content to share regulatory power with the other Secretaries, undertook to
issue a wide variety of substantive regulations on his own, especially in the area
of food standards. There is no dispute that these regulations were interpretive
only, and were intended to be merely advisory. Hayes & Ruff, supra at 16, 32
n.71; Cavers, The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938: Its Legislative
History and Its Substantive Provisions, 6 Law & Contemp.Probs. 2, 25 (1939);
Lee, Legislative and Interpretive Regulations, supra, at 7; Davis,
Administrative Rules Interpretative, Legislative and Retroactive, 57 Yale L.J.
919, 932 (1948); 2 Toulmin, supra. "During the course of the enactment of the
1906 act numerous attempts were made to include in it authority for the
Secretary of Agriculture to adopt regulations embodying standards. These
attempts were all unsuccessful." Lee, supra, at 7 (footnote omitted); see also
Hayes & Ruff, supra at 32. That the regulations were not mandatory was
acknowledged by the Department of Agriculture itself; testifying before
Congress in 1923, a Department official said of food products regulations:
Those definitions and standards did not have the force nor effect of law and the

Department of Agriculture has never presumed for a moment that they do have.
They merely serve as an indication of the administrative position taken by the
Department in the enforcement of the law.
Hearings before Committee on Agriculture on H.R. 12053, 67th Cong., 4th
Sess. 2 (1923), quoted in Lee, supra, at 9.
12

Putting aside tendentious industry writings in regard to the 1938 Act, a number
of publications issued more or less contemporaneously support plaintiffs'
conclusion that § 701(a) was not intended to empower the Secretary to issue
binding substantive regulations. Cavers, supra, and Kleinfeld, Legislative
History of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 1 Food Drug, &
Cosm.L.J. 532 (1946), set out the legislative history of the Act in detail and
establish that the power of the Secretary to issue binding regulations was a
controversial aspect of the various bills debated by Congress, see Cavers, supra,
at 9, 11 n.34; Kleinfeld, supra, at 539-42, 546-47, and that these objections
were met by providing for elaborate procedures for the promulgation and
judicial review of various kinds of legislative regulations, Cavers, supra, at 2021; Kleinfeld, supra, at 569, 571-72, 574-76. Professor Fuchs, writing in 1939,
characterized regulations issued pursuant to § 701(a) as those "which do not
directly control private activity," Fuchs, supra, at 44, but we see no basis for
this limitation. In his 1940 article, Lee read § 701(a) as authorizing only
interpretive regulations. Lee, supra, at 25. Seller and Grundstein, two attorneys
in the Department of Agriculture, in their monograph entitled Administrative
Procedure and Practice in the Department of Agriculture under the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 (1940), reprinted in 3 Toulmin, supra, §
49.1 at 1146, drew a clear distinction between legislative and interpretive rules
and asserted: "As a matter of fact, it was the intention to draft § 701(e) so as to
include all rules and regulations of this legislative category." Id. at 1154

13

Abbott Laboratories and the Hyson quartet, like the instant case, concerned
regulations issued to enforce provisions added to the Act by the Drug
Amendments of 1962. It could thus be argued that insofar as those cases upheld
the power of the Commissioner to issue binding regulations under § 701(a),
they accept a Congressional understanding of that provision in 1962 at odds
with the result desired by the plaintiffs and would preclude our ruling in their
favor even if we were otherwise disposed to do so

14

Plaintiffs can reply that the Chrysler Court stressed that in National
Broadcasting, "the Court probed the language and logic of the Communications
Act and its legislative history" and came to its conclusion "only after this
careful parsing of authority," 441 U.S. at 308, 99 S.Ct. at 1721, whereas a court
engaging in such parsing of the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act shortly

after its enactment might well have come to the conclusion that § 701(a) did not
confer power to promulgate binding substantive regulations. This simply brings
us back to the argument discussed above. That the statements in Abbott
Laboratories and in the Hynson quartet were made without the benefit of the
probing of the language and history of the 1938 Act stressed in Chrysler does
not detract from their authority as binding precedents
15

One should not overread the Chrysler Court's statements that when Congress
enacted the statutes alleged to provide authority for Executive Order 11246, it
was "not concerned with" disclosure of trade secrets, and that no "delegation of
disclosure authority" could be found in those statutes. 441 U.S. at 306, 99 S.Ct.
at 1720. It would be taking this language out of context to read it as demanding
a level of specificity of congressional intent not heretofore required by the
Court's decisions

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